Apparatus for stretching, drying, and processing endless webs, such as blankets or wires for papermaking machines, typically include at least one stretch roll mounted for movement along tracks relative to a processing station, such as a loom or fixed roll, for processing the endless web while it is maintained under tension. Such stretch rolls are of massive size, such as 10 meters or more in length and more than 7 tons in weight. Therefore, it has been a particularly difficult problem to manipulate such rolls in order to remove the endless web after it has been processed and stretched, and to replace it with another endless web. To accomplish this in the past, the apparatus which supports the stretch roll must be moved to a cantilever arrangement, so that the endless web may be removed from the free end of the roll while it is being supported in the cantilever arrangement. All of such cantilever arrangements, whether they be a beam cantilever, a journal cantilever, or a saddle cantilever, require that the roll to be supported in the cantilever arrangement be moved to a particular location on the tracks where the cantilevering apparatus is located. Typical of such an arrangement is U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,372, issued on Aug. 3, 1971. In this arrangement, the stretch roll is mounted on stretch carriages which are moved to a position adjacent the drive roll when it is desired to remove the endless web. As the cantilever supporting apparatus is located adjacent to the drive roll, it is necessary to move the stretch roll to the drive roll when it is desired to remove the endless web. The cantilever arrangement is used to lift one end of the stretch roll and drive roll so that the endless web can be removed and replaced. As will be understood, such apparatus, as well as other prior art arrangements, require that the stretch carriages move the stretch roll to a predetermined position along the tracks in order to cantilever it so that the endless web can be removed. This, of course, utilizes valuable processing time and is therefore wasteful and inefficient.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved arrangement which overcomes the aforesaid problems. Specifically, it is within the contemplation of the present invention to provide an arrangement for lifting and supporting an end of the movable roll so that the endless web can be removed therefrom at any point along the tracks, so that it is no longer necessary to return the stretch carriages and stretch roll to a predetermined position where the cantilever apparatus is located to remove the endless web.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the carriages which move the stretch roll along the trackways with apparatus for lifting and supporting the stretch roll so that the endless web may be removed therefrom at any point along the trackway.